REGINE ABEL

The best gifts come in big packages.

Meet Kathleen: a thirty-six-year-old Plain Jane extraordinaire, with a Ph. D in Xenobiology and another in Spinsterhood. This year, yet again, her sorry self is stuck working on Mars for the holidays. Aside from dodging the unrequited attention of a certain cringe-worthy bachelor on the station, she mentally prepares for yet another lonely and boring Christmas.

But when her sister sends her an early gift in the form of a drool-worthy alien hellbent on fulfilling her every desire, Kathleen isn’t so sure she wishes to stay off the naughty list anymore.